Monday, November 14, 2016

Eating At An Immigrant Owned Restaurant As Act Of Support And Defiance

There are many ways you can stand up for freedom, equity, decency, and the US Constitution in the new Trump reality. One is to eat at immigrant owned restaurants to show the owners you support their rights and also to help keep them in business.

I hadn't thought of this until I saw a retweet from Mark Meyer that said Eater would NOT send out lists of immigrant owned restaurants. They write that they've had requests for maps and lists of immigrant owned businesses so that people could patronize and support them. But . . .

"For all that we agree with the spirit of solidarity and inclusion behind these requests, however, Eater will not be publishing lists specifically of immigrant- or minority-owned businesses. We feel that it would be irresponsible to publish guides specifically highlighting restaurants owned by people whose lives and livelihoods may right now be threatened, because of the very real possibility that they would double as cheat sheets to help intolerant actors find new people, businesses, and families to target. In this chaotic moment, we believe it would be indefensible to widely broadcast the cultural affiliations or immigration status of any individuals or their families without their explicit permission."

Pouring Tea at Moroccan Restaurant

Whether it's a restaurant you've been patronizing for years or one you've just discovered, let the
owners know you are there, support them, and if they have any trouble to let you know.

I suspect there aren't that many people likely to cause trouble, but 1% of Anchorage's 300,000 people is 1,000 people. One percent of that is still 10 people. 49,573 people in Anchorage (some absentee votes are yet to be counted) voted for Trump. (45,700 voted for Clinton.)

7 comments:

Let me see if I can understand this. These evil people who no one has seen anything of are going to need a list to tell them which eating places to target? They are not intelligent enough to figure that Don Pedro’s might be owned by Mexicans or China Lights by Chinese people or Pho Vietnam by Vietnamese. You want to see some violence related to the election take a look at Portland but that might fly in the face of your opinion of Trump supporters as knuckle dragging fools. How about a story on Portland.

Since there definitely is documented evidence of local hate crimes perpetrated against immigrants locally even before Trump, there's no logic or rationale in you trying to make the claim that after Trump that risk is any less than at least what has been documented before.

Your premise is as unfounded in Anchorage as it is elsewhere. Anchorage isn't immune from hate crimes perpetrated against immigrant populations. Intolerant actors haven't magically disappeared because last week.

As to whether there is evidence since the rise of Trump, (did you suppose everyone should go along with your wish to conveniently omit the fact that Trump and his supporters have been increasingly fomenting hate for well over a year already?), in any case, Uniform Crime reports are not compiled and released as yet for the most recent period. That data is simply unavailable at this time. That doesn't preclude it's existence. I suggest you review those reports when they become available, afterward you can get back to us on that.

Whatever the conjectural parallel you wish to create between Portland and here is irrelevant to the risk of hate crimes here. There's no correlation.

Portland has as much to do with anything pertinent to your false premise as the use of a 19th century children's book author's pseudonym would.

The post in question is about showing respect for basic human rights being shown to people deserving the same.

Nothing you've offered negates the validity of the post suggesting support for basic human rights being protected and supported or for supporting and respecting people and their businesses.

Oliver, I'd say you leave a pretty small window - since Trump was elected. Many would like to see that there is no violence, no harassment in Anchorage. But we've had plenty against Alaska Natives and against women over the years. In any case the article was a national one, not a local one and the photo I used was not a local one.

Portland? Why should I mention Portland? I understand putting things into context is useful, but every story can't build the context every time. And Portland is getting plenty of press. I assumed people like you knew the context, and since you brought it up, it shows you do. Why does this post get to you enough to want to comment?

So we have harassment and minorities over the years in Anchorage for sure. Will there be more under a Trump presidency? I guess we will have to wait and see. You might want to revisit this in a year with some statistics. What got me to respond is the statement ‘restaurants owned by people whose lives and livelihoods may right now be threatened’. I remember the right wing folks after Obama was elected crying and whining about Obama ‘coming for their guns’. He never came for their guns I doubt Trump supporters are coming for minority restaurants. I really dislike people playing the victim without any evidence of any victimization. And again the only destruction I see is coming from the left, the damage in Portland is over a million dollars and plenty of small businesses were damaged. You repost what you think might happen and ignore what is happening. You seriously think you are not being a bit hysterical? I am in no way a Trump supporter, I have voted Democratic in every election since McGovern and I voted for Jill Stein in this one.

FBI: Hate crimes against Muslims up by 67 percent in 2015 - CBS Newswww.cbsnews.com/news/fbi-hate-crimes-against-muslims-up-67-percent-2015/1 day ago - ATLANTA - The number of hate crimes reported to police increased by about 6.7 percent last year, led largely by a 67 percent surge in crimes …

′Build the wall′ chants and swastikas in schools - hate crime reports ...www.dw.com/en/build-the-wall-chants-and...hate-crime...surge.../a-363518864 days ago - 'Build the wall' chants and swastikas in schools - hate crime reports surge in US after Trump win. Reports of swastika graffiti and racial slurs in …

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About Me

I started this blog just to find out what the blogworld was all about. I figured I needed to actually blog, not just read other people's blogs, to understand how it works, and what ways it could be used. This is all experimental. A learning exercise for me. It's turning out to be a look at one person's (mine) life based in Anchorage. With occasional trips away.
UPDATE July 6, 2015: Here's a post that discusses my evasiveness in this profile - it's intentional.